Generally, a machine-to-machine (hereinafter abbreviated M2M) communication literally means a communication between one electronic device and another electronic device. In a broad sense, the M2M communication may mean a wire/wireless communication between electronic devices or a communication between a human-controllable device and a machine. Recently, the M2M communication may generally indicate a communication between electronic devices, i.e., a device-to-device wireless communication performed without human involvement.
In the early 1990's, in which the concept of the M2M communication has been initially introduced, the M2M communication has been recognized as remote control or telematics or the like and derivative markets of the M2M communication were very limitative. Yet, the M2M communication has grown rapidly for past few years and has become the globally noteworthy markets. Specifically, in POS (point of sales) and security related application markets, the M2M communication has considerably influence on such field as fleet management, remote monitoring of machinery and equipment, smart meter for auto-measurement of operating time, consumed heat or electricity quantity on construction machinery equipment and the like. M2M communication in the future will be further utilized for various usages in connection with a small-scale output communication solution such as conventional mobile communication, wireless high-speed internet, Wi-Fi, ZigBee and the like and may lay the foundation of expansion to B2C (business to consumer) markets instead of being confined to B2B (business to business) markets.
In the era of the M2M communication, every machine equipped with SIM (subscriber identity module) card enables data transmission and reception and is capable of remote management and control. For instance, as M2M communication technology is usable for numerous devices and equipment including vehicles, trucks, containers, auto-vending machines, gas tanks and the like, its application fields may reach far and wide.
According to a related art, since mobile stations are managed by individual unit in general, a communication between a base station and a mobile station is usually performed by a one-to-one communication scheme. Assuming that numerous M2M devices communicate with a base station by the one-to-one communication scheme, network may be overloaded due to the occurrence of signaling between the base station and each of the numerous M2M devices. As mentioned in the above description, in case that the M2M communications are rapidly spreading across a wider scope, overheads due to the communications between the M2M devices or the communications between the base station and the M2M devices may cause problems.
Meanwhile, a base station needs to transmit multicast data to M2M devices. However, a method for a base station to transmit multicast data in consideration of properties of M2M devices and a method for efficiently receiving the multicasts have not been proposed in detail yet.